The Computer Science collection primarily supports the teaching and research of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Computer Science Department, the Department of Computer Science of Metropolitan College, and the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems (CNS) and the Center for Adaptive Systems.

Programs supported by the Computer Science collection include a BA in Computer Science or in Computer Science and Mathematics and a combined BA/MA program in either Computer Science or Computer Science and Cognitive and Neural Systems. These programs are offered by the Computer Science Department (CAS). MA and PhD degrees in Computer Science are offered by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GRS). BS and MS degrees in Computer Science, an MS in Computer Information Systems, and an MS in Telecommunications are offered by Metropolitan College. Undergraduate and Graduate Certificate Programs in Computer Science are also offered by Metropolitan College. The Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems awards MA, PhD and BA/MA degrees. The Center for Computational Science (CCS) offers a Certificate in Computational Science to students pursuing a Ph.D. through the Advanced Computation in Engineering and Science (ACES) program.

The collection supports research in the College of Engineering, especially in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Mathematics and Statistics. The Computer Science collection also supports the research of the Center for Computational Science, the Scientific Computing and Visualization Group of Information Services and Technology (IS&T), and staff and researchers in other departments of IS&T.

The Computer Science collection generally supports the needs of students, staff, and researchers in the broader University community involved in computer applications in other disciplines. Computer applications, computational methods, and data processing as applied to other science and some nonscience disciplines are collected. Management information systems and expert systems in medicine are typical examples. Researchers in diverse areas also make use of books on computer networks and programming languages, databases, web site design and development, markup languages and web authoring software.

Scope of Coverage

Languages collected (primary and selective) or excluded

Materials are collected primarily in English and only occasionally in other languages.

Geographical areas covered by the collections in terms of intellectual content, publication sources, or both, and specific areas excluded, as appropriate

There are no limitations on geographical areas covered in terms of intellectual content. Publication sources are generally English language publishers.

Chronological periods covered by the collection in terms of intellectual content, movements or schools, and specific periods excluded, as appropriate

The chronological period covered by the collection is limited to the period since the development of computing (approximately 1950-) in terms of intellectual content including the history of computing. Some older materials that form the mathematical foundations of computing are also collected.

Emphasis is on the latest available materials in terms of publication dates, and the collection would rarely include materials ten years old or older with the exception of classics in the history of computing or mathematical foundations of computing.

General Subject Boundaries and Library Locations

The subject scope of this collection is primarily determined by the Library of Congress call number range QA75.5-QA76.765 (Electronic computers, Computer science, Computer software) and the call number ranges Q300-Q390 (Cybernetics, Information theory), T385 (Computer graphics) and TK5105.888 (World Wide Web). All items in these categories are housed in the Science and Engineering Library.

Related subjects and Interdisciplinary Relationships

The selector for Computer Science consults with selectors in several other subject areas:

Education

Some relationship between the Computer Science collection and the Education collection exists for computer assisted instruction (CAI) and the study and teaching of computing.

Engineering

The Computer Science collection relies on a strong relationship with the Engineering collection for electrical and computer engineering.

Management and Economics

The collection has overlapping interests with the Management and Economics collections for management information systems (MIS) and Operations Research (OR), the computer industry, management of computer resources, and economic aspects of computing.

Mathematics

The Computer Science collection relies on a strong relationship with the Mathematics collection for the mathematics of computation.

Other On-Campus or Local Resources

The Computer Science collection is focused on acquiring very current materials and must respond to constant technological change. To preserve resources for acquiring research materials about these technologies, other materials are generally not collected. Examples include manuals or guidebooks such as “Teach yourself…” guides to programming language or software packages or products. Also avoided are guides to learning or using machine specific systems or software on a specific type of computer or computer system. Textbooks are generally not collected except when they are considered standard works or classics in a particular subject area.